Stagwell, the challenger network built to transform marketing, announced it has acquired Sidekick, an award-winning collective of specialist agencies focused on experiential, digital storytelling, and branded content. Sidekick will join Allison, a global marketing and communications consultancy within Stagwell.
“Sidekick is at the forefront of storytelling and will be an essential part of the challenger marketing network we are building in Europe,” said Mark Penn, Chairman and CEO, Stagwell. “As we embark on our next chapter in Europe, I’m excited to welcome Duncan and Ollie to our network and see Allison continue to transform its content innovation capabilities.”
The addition of Sidekick will further expand Allison’s footprint in Europe and introduce capabilities in the market that are critical for a new era of integrated brand storytelling. It adds tremendous synergies to Allison’s existing core competencies of strategic communications, influencer marketing, digital, performance marketing and data analytics.
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“After a successful period of collaboration with the Sidekick team, we are delighted to have them officially join the Allison family. The organisation that the Sidekick founders have built together with their colleagues delivers an impressive suite of services that complements those already offered by Allison and leads with a strong and supportive culture that aligns with our own,” said Scott Allison, Global Chairman of Allison. He added, “As we continue to expand our operations throughout Europe, Sidekick will form an integral part of this growth story.”
The Sidekick Group launched back in 2021 when experiential agency Kreate and content agency Many Makers came together to form a strategic arm of the business, capitalising its collective expertise on behalf of clients. Kreate delivers ‘real-world’ activations for clients, specialising in brand experience and live events. Many Makers is a video and brand content agency that uses digital storytelling including social media, video production, gamification and AR/VR content on behalf of the wider group.
Sidekick Co-founders Duncan McCaslin and Ollie Burgoyne will remain as Managing Directors of their respective teams and both will join Allison’s European management team. Directors William Howe and Stephen Bradley will also move across in their current roles. No other staffing changes are planned.
“The acquisition represents a significant leap forward in the growth of Sidekick and our people. Having seen our collective teams work successfully together over the last year or so, we knew that joining with Allison and Stagwell was the logical next step. We see this as the perfect time to combine forces, further enhancing our collective capabilities and ensuring that we continue to deliver outstanding results for our clients,” said Duncan McCaslin, MD of Sidekick and Kreate.
“This is an extremely exciting next step for Sidekick. Having worked alongside the team at Allison for the last two years, we quickly realised that we share the same vision and values. I can’t wait for our teams to work as one and to be a part of the exciting growth plans that Scott and team have in place,” added Ollie Burgoyne, MD of Sidekick and Many Makers.
This acquisition comes amid a significant European acceleration at Stagwell, which has in recent months appointed James Townsend as CEO, EMEA, and launched a regional hub at the Blue Fin Building in London to connect its 15+ agencies and over 1900 employees within the region.
Sidekick is Stagwell’s second acquisition of the year, following the purchase of Team Epiphany, a culturalist creative agency connecting brands to multicultural consumers, in January 2024.
SOURCE: PRNewsWire